Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-04-28

Reasons Why They Are More Common
Than They Were Years Ago.

L
sons fail in the business of farming a
the present time than was the CASE
| when he first moved to the West. Mos
| likely such is the fact 1t is also likely
that larger proportion of those who
engage in manufacturing and trade
| fail, or at least do not make any con-
siderable amount of money in the bust.
ness in which they engage. Farming.
like trade and manufacturing, has be-
come complicated. To insure success
in il requires more skill, ability and
knowledge than were necessary forty
years ago. The margin of profit in
raising crops for the man -et by the en-
ployment of hired labor is now very
small The general use of machinery
has resulted in lowering the price OF
nearly all farm products. Hand labor
can not compete with machine labor on
the farm any more successfully than it
can in the mine or mandatory. But
agricultural machinery is very costly,
and lasts only short time even if good
care is taken of it, which is not ordina-
rily done. Few manufacturers would
make any money in using machines if
they took as poor care of them as most
Western farmers do of theirs. Neither
could manufacturers make money by
using machines if they purchased them
at the prices and on the terms farmers
are accustomed TO.
Agricultural machines and other
costly implements cause many farmers
to fail in meeting expenses and provid-
s,1or 60 h. 3 ~.
They are very expensive at the start,
and they are constantly requiring re-
pairs and new parts. The machines
used III ordinary manufacturing estab-
lishments do not require as many re-
pairs as those that are used on farms
and they last much longer, though the
former may be in constant operation
while the latter are not in use more
than one month in the year. Shop
and factory machines are in the hands
of competent mechanics. who know how
to use and how to take care of them
But this is not true of machinery used
on farms. In every factory and in
nearly every shop there is some per-
son regularly employed, who is compe-
tent to make repairs on the machines
in it. A farmer, however, is obliged
to purchase new sections for his ma
chimes or to employ mechanics to make
grain enough to pay for its first cost
and the repairs that are made on it.
Buying machines at exorbitant prices,
paying out large sums for sections and
repairs, allowing them to be broken by
injudicious use or ruined by exposure,
result in the financial ruin of many
farmers. They furnish causes for fail
ure that did not exist in the days when
there were no machines on farms and
when all the implements were simple
in construction and cheap in price.
Farmers do more trading than they
did generation ago, and perhaps they
are required by altered circumstances
to do more. They buy many more az
ticles, though they do not always have
more things to sell. The modern farmer
is a trader, and not every good man
ager of a farm is Il successful trader.
Observation in. most farming COMMUNE
ties shows that the best traders are not
the most skillful and industrious land
workers, but are the most successful in
accommodating property and in getting
on in the world" The man who is a
good Judge of all kinds of livestock,
who keeps himself well informed in re-
gard to prices, who knows where to
find customers, and who learns all
about the necessities of his brother
farmers, will generally make more
money III buying; selling and ''swap-
ping" animals than any person in his
neighbOrhood will make in raising
them. The large sums paid for finely
matched teams of carriage horses do
not go into the pockets of the farmers
who raise them, but into those of
persons who buy them of farmers,
train them, and find purchasers for
them in cities. Some farmer who has
no reputation as hard worker always
"has an eye" ON all the promising colts
and heifers in the neighborhood, and
generally becomes the owner of them
before their value becomes apparent to
the person who raised them. Unless
the farmer of to-day is good trader,
he is likely to fail in making any
money.
Bankers and brokers of long expe-
rience state that farmers of the present
day borrow more money than did the
farmers of a previous generation. 1t
is somewhat new thing for farmers to
give ehattel mortgages for securing the
payment of money. Chattel mortgages
were common enough in cities years
ago, but they were almost unknown in
the country. The men who first en-
gagged in farming in the West did not
care to drive a team, to milk a COW, or
to hold a plow that was mortgaged to
some money-loaner living in the near
est large town. Giving mortgages on
growing crops is a practice that has